Meet Your New Neighbors

Emilie Ying had lived in Huntington Beach in the same house for 46 years, but she did want to live closer to her two daughters.

The girls had been trying for two or three years to get her to make the move to Tehachapi. She found a house, and now she is getting used to her new location and new climate.

Emilie was born and raised in Georgia, where she attended the University of Georgia and then worked in Atlanta as a commercial artist.

For three or four years she helped design and print billboards, when they were silk screen printed on “24 sheets” and then applied to the billboard like a puzzle. She met her husband at church. He had been born in China and had learned English from missionaries.

The missionaries also helped him come to the United States in 1950 with a scholarship in engineering at University of Kansas. After college he went to work for Lockheed in Atlanta where he met and married Emilie. His career in aerospace eventually brought them to California, Rockwell and the beach.

Emilie’s oldest daughter, Karen, has lived in Tehachapi for over twenty years. She has two sons aged 22 and 20, and a husband who enjoys working on cars.

Emilie told me that the family kept horses for several years until the boys outgrew them. Her younger daughter, Renee, has lived in Tehachapi for about ten years and is a bookkeeper for Kohnen’s Bakery. The girls are very glad to finally have their mom close by.

Emilie mentioned that she likes making ceramics and once took a class in it at Orange Coast College. She says that she also likes to sew and looks forward to getting back to her creative activities once she gets settled.

For many years Emilie has been very active with the group “Women Aglow”, attending retreats and conferences in places like Rhode Island, Tennessee, Washington and Texas, and she intends to continue working with this group even though she is no longer living at the coast.

For now Emilie is looking forward to getting unpacked and becoming acquainted with her new surroundings. “Welcome to Tehachapi, Emilie!”

Reagan and Pete Wolfe arrived in Tehachapi at the end of last year from Oildale. They had wanted to move to the mountains and clean air for some time, but they would be leaving their children and grandchildren behind.

According to Reagan their family didn’t want them to move, but – of course – they all still come to visit whenever they can.

Pete has worked in maintenance for the State of California Food and Agriculture Department for three years and is based in Arvin. Reagan has been involved in sales and marketing for nearly 25 years.

She has also been going to school to learn writing techniques and is now looking forward to writing for a new website, “Under the Night Sky” (http://www.underthenightsky.com), which will be up and running and on Facebook by the end of June (Summer Solstice). It will be a guide to the constellations, stars, and planets that can be viewed with the naked eye in the night sky. It sounds fascinating and I am really looking forward to checking it out.

Reagan was born and raised in the Bakersfield area. As both her parents worked, she was always very self-sufficient. She said she can remember walking to school in kindergarten. She has one sister, Meredith, who now lives in New England. Her father was a dental lab technician and her mother, at one time, worked for the Welfare Department and also for Kern County Land. She is still working as a volunteer, teaching ESL.

Pete was born in Inglewood, Calif. and has four brothers and four sisters. All but one of his siblings still live in California. His father was in insurance sales and the family moved often.

At various times they lived in Merced, Santa Barbara, Covina and Oregon among others. Pete spent 30 years as a roofer before his current job with the state. His spare time now is working on house projects like the strange sprinkler system with sprays that come up in the gravel driveway.

The Wolfe’s have five children between them. Chris (30) and Tyler (25) are Pete’s children and Tim (30), Kim (28) and Rebekah (22) are Reagan’s. Chris and Kim each have two children – grandchildren that Pete and Reagan miss so very much. Of course, we can’t forget the family pets.

DeeDee is their cute little Silkie and Katryn and Audrey are, of course, the cats.

Welcome, Pete and Reagan, and enjoy your mountain getaway.